I'm convinced it's not worth spending any more than 17 million on your 3 strikers!

The top 5 defenders have scored 284 points so far while the top 5 strikers have only scored 281 points... not a huge gap you might think... the difference is that the defenders' average cost is 6.3m while the strikers' average cost is 8.5m!!

Only 2 out of the top 10 points scorers are strikers (Keane in 4th and Benjani in joint 7th). Looking at players with a Value (Season) of 7.0 or more, there are only 3 strikers, compared to 14 Goalkeepers, 23 defenders and 19 midfielders.

The stats speak for themselves. Don't waste your money on big-name strikers people!

I think that you may be on to something really. I think defenders can be good scorers collecting pints consecutively while contributing the odd goal. However, i think that the real points are in the midfield!

Jones and abonglahore are doing well up front and are not too expensive. Benjani is doing well.

But look at the points you can get from fab, elano, lampard, petrov etc

Last year I flitted between Rooney and Drogba, sometimes had both at the same time. It's worth it is you pick the striker on form, as you get the potential for captaining a hat trick player, which can be very exciting - i think big name strikers make the game more fun which is why I can't really resist Rooney even though Ronny is the better value player.

I'm inclined to agree with you.

At the moment I have the enviable forward line of Forsell, Jones and Cole, going to bring in Benjani for one of the two cheaper guys next week. Am playing 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 with Elano, Fab, Lampard and Ronaldo (Dempsey as supersub) in midfield and a back 6 of James, Ferdinand, Finan, Beletti, Carvalho and Garrido. It's working well so far: I'm top of my league.

Looking for an opportunity to try out 4:5:1 myself, but the 1 up front would need to be an RVP, or a Rooney, or a Drogba. If your cheapie front man doesn't work out, there is a lot of work to change that around - assuming you are not a Wildcard virgin.

I'm in agreement, which is why my Strikers will now longer be Agbonlahor, Rooney, Anelka and will soon be Agbonlahor, Tevez, Jones. This would free up a staggering 8m for me(including money I already have, so I could upgrade Teale to Lampard/Gerrard and switch to 4-4-2.

Its all relevent, currently I have Black Cats Jones and Pompey Benjani, with Adebayor the missing link and was closing in on replacing him for someone like Villa Young or Hammer Cole, then maybe just playing one a week as I currently have a very strong defense and midfield...

i recently aligned myself with the 4-5-1 formation and look forward to the future.
but a word of warning for general analysis. the past and present stats will definitely tell a story but you must not overlook the future.
while we don't have a crystal ball and past stats are better than nothing but beware of the chasing your tail effect.
i.e. benjani's performance may be dunky-hory so far but surely this can't last. to jump on him now would be missing the boat surely. if it does he must be the zamora of this season.
in this way of thinking (future oriented) examine fixtures, runs, doubles, etc. and remember the cream will rise to the top (form is temp etc.) so who is 'due' to correct their below average performances. then consider their team outlook this year. eg. superbenty may be down on his strike rate 25% as opposed to 40% but now his expectations are much lower at the spurs bull market where all the other top bucks are poaching off each other rendering him poor value. keanie semms to be the one exception to this though.

i like the pts potential of my big 5 middies and i'll settle for now for a low expectation from my cheap forwards - carlton cold filtered & fourecks.

With 4:5:1 though, you're wasting more money on the bench because strikers still cost more even if you don't want to play them, so in a way I think the benefit of getting more value out of midfielders is offset by the increase in the cost of your subs. Glyzen.

This has been the case since the day Henry first began suffering from injuries, and you didn't have to have him captained every week. Strikers from the 'big four' are overpriced, get rotated and just don't score enough in modern football to justify being 10m+ - not to mention most of them being crocks. Give me a 'play every 90 minutes' Agbonlahor or Jones anyday. Theres little point in having an 10m Forward unless your going to captain him, and who risks that when Lampard, Ronaldo and Fabregas are more dependable.

my 17.5m frontline of Agbonlahor, Jones & Can't Control has lifted me into the top 25K

Here we go again with the J-Lo... Ooooooooh I love her!

She's having twins, which is proof that you've gotta have a sexy behind (Reina Gallas Clichy Carvhalo Knight Garrido) and now a strong middle (Fab Lamps Ron Cahill), and ive been playing with santa cruz up front all year in a 5-4-1. Bench players are of utmost importance imo as you really need a good squad to rotate to match best fixtures. It can either win your league or cost you dearly if you make the wrong choices though (like my decision this GW to bench garrido instead of clichy).

From what ive seen in my 3 years of FPL, the winners arent afraid to bench 6-9mil players if they have a better choice on the pine.

ultimately, its those mids that will score the big bucks, and you have to find the streaks in the defs and atts.

i prefer 3-4-3.
it keeps the money on the pitch, and theoretically, maximises "pointscoring potential".
my favourite strikers are usually ranged between 7.5-9.5mil who average +4.5pts/per game. they offer much better value than Rooney/Drogba.

I look at money on the bench as price over base (3.9 keeper, 3.8 defender, 3.7 midfield, 4.7 forward). I don't pay much attention to formation (except to cover the minimum 3 defenders rule). Current form and your judgement of a weeks matches are more important.

I like to have 2 playing benchers for unforseen autosubbing, or to cover short term injury or suspension. Note - Fabregas on 4 yellows.

My three attackers currently total 19.8, but for quite a while they were worht a combined total of less than 17.0. I played this tactic last season as too, and it's served me very well so far.

yeah - i know.
we'll have to carefully monitor that.

i agree. why tie up money in your bench players? instead you can spend the funds on expensive, high-value players or have it in the bank. that way you can buy quality, regular starters while having the flexibility to bring in new players without too many transfer hits.



that's the really hard part

Not quite bought into this cheap attack thing yet, though.

26.8 Mil up front and I am in the top 150K

I manage a team in the top 25K, not Stevenage !

Perhaps if you'd spent 17m up front you would have been in the top 50,000!